Anne-Kristin Løes anne-kristin.loes@ bioforsk.no

Innovative Public Organic Food Procurement for Youth (iPOPY)

innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth CORE Organic Research Seminar, Paris, November 29, 2011

Main goal: To study how increased consumption of organic food may be achieved by the implementation of strategies and instruments used for public procurement of organic food in serving outlets for young people. Activities: In five WPs, the project studied: •Policies and strategies to increase organic consumption, e.g. in schools •Supply chain management •Procedures for certification of serving outlets •Stakeholders' perceptions and participation •The potential of organic food in relation to health and obesity risks

Frame: CORE Organic I project funded by Denmark, Finland, Italy and Norway. Duration 2007-2010.

The iPOPY project

Organic for the youth – Why school meals ?

• iPOPY was about public procurement

• Schools are the most important public service for youth

• School days increase in length

• Young people need healthy, high quality food

• Introduction, or change of school meal systems is a “window of opportunity” to increase organic consumption

Main results 1

Large variation between school food systems How to analyze them?

Packed lunch brought from home

Complete meal served at school

Five factors describing the variations in school meal systems • Type of school food service – any food offered in school? • Degree of public financing. User payment? • Degree of political and administrative involvement in school food procurement in general • Degree of specific support for organic school food, e.g. regulations • Availability of organic food supply adapted to school food service Ideal case, maximising organic consumption: Complete meal, paid by the public, strong public involvement in school meals, good support for organic school food and a well developed organic school food supply (5,5,5,5,5)

Web diagram for comparison, scores 1-5

Løes and Nölting 2011; Organic Agriculture (ISOFAR, Springer)

Two examples: Finland and Italy

Finland: Scores 5,5,5,2,2 Italy: Scores 4,3,4,5,4

1

2

3 4

5

Finland

• Complete, warm meals, served daily for all pupils up to 18 years, paid by the public, nutritionally calculated, well integrated in the school culture

• «Help yourself» system, eating together in large dining halls

• Low share of organic products (about 3 % in 2010),but public aims of sustainable public procurement (2/week by 2015). Sustainable defined as organic, vegetarian or seasonal

• High potential for a large organic consumption in schools in future

Italy • Complete, warm meals, served for pupils up to 13

years on full school days

• Public support for infrastructure, but high user payment

• Pupils normally served at the table to learn good manners

• High share of organic products (about 40 % by weight), due to public regulations prioritizing certified food in school meals

• Design of calls for tenders are crucial to achieve large shares of organic food

• Organicness should be communicated!

Main results 2

Multiple embedding is required

Kristensen et al., 2010 CORE Organic Project Series Report (Biofach); Mikkola 2009 (Apetite, Agronomy Research)

• The more formalized, politically prioritized and economically supported the school food systems are, the more embedded the systems will be in terms of pupils’ participation, infrastructures such as canteen facilities etc.

• On the other hand, top-down regulated systems may lose the civil embeddedness, and the pupils and parents may feel decoupled from the decisions.

• In public catering contexts, there are caterers who make initiatives to use organic and local food, expressing a professional identity for sustainability. These caterers exert a social force for sustainability. They need support in terms of learning about the supply chains, and understanding more in-depth the role of organic agriculture in their professional work.

• Lack of regulatory embeddedness gives the school food systems being

tried/developed a hard time to survive due to weak structures and lack of canteen facilities, economic support etc. However, the involvement of the civil actors may be stronger in such cases, possibly due to this lack of regulatory embeddedness

Remaining main results

40% organic school food in Italy due to public demand Catering certification: Survey showed stakeholders call for harmonization Organic food and farming well suited to discuss and experience sustainability in practice Organic school policy promotes healthy eating: Schools with a healthy food policy also support organic food

Main end users, and how to reach them? • Interdisciplinary approach (food antropology-

sociology- nutrition-agronomy)

Main end users: • People involved in decisions about school meals and

public procurement of food • People active along the whole supply chain linked to

the food serving • Politicians and other stakeholders We established national user groups and issued a

regular newsletter in English, editor at Bioforsk

Main end users, and how to reach them?

- We arranged several workshops and conferences

• Linked to the Organic World Congress Modena 2008 • Linked to Biofach Germany 2008, 2009, 2010. • Arranged in each partner country; Helsinki 2009,

Copenhagen 2009, Bologna 2010, Oslo 2010

- Proceedings published in the CORE Organic Project Series Report (except for Oslo 2010)

Main end users, and how to reach them?

- We presented (and still present) our results in scientific conferences and journals

- We published 15 scientific reports in the Bioforsk series, 3 in the CORE Organic series and 2 in other series

- We published a leaflet with practical recommendations in English and Italian

- We cooperated with “International Innovation” and paid for a 3 page paper written by professional journalists

- We updated our website - We uploaded all our delive rables into Organic Eprints - We wrote a comprehensive final report =)

In which countries can your results be used, and how?

Photos from EAT project, Coepnahgen EAT, Copenhagen

- The variation between countries with respect to school meals was large in the project, and covers most of the total variation in Europe

- Hence the results are relevant for most other countries - Countries with comparable conditions may identify, and like to

see answers to, more specific research questions; iPOPY results are more general

- Results may be used to inspire stakeholders and guide them about how to increase the consumption of organic food among young people in a public setting

New research questions?

• Interesting to utilise iPOPY results and experiences to study more/other countries, and other serving areas than school meals, such as festivals, youth organisations, army camps, kindergartens, high schools and universities, where we only analysed a few cases

Thanks to the iPOPY research team here in Copenhagen, Denmark, Nov. 2009

8 participating institutes/universities in 5 countries (DK, DI, IT, NO, DE)